On the first weekend of October the little village of Bonassola, near the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) along the Italian Riviera, celebrates the dedication of the Parish Church, dating from the XVII century, to the Lady of the Rosary.

The celebration, centered originally around a Catholic Mass on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. and a parade of the Statue of the Virgin Mary in the afternoon of Sunday at 4 p.m., has grown over the years and now it is a truly religious and folkloristic festival that involves the Council and the whole of the village.

Over the weekend, along the streets of the village, people can enjoy live music (a concert on the Friday night and a live band on the Saturday night), food and wine stalls selling traditional dishes (gatafin and apple frittas are just an example!), clothes, jewelleries, bags, sweets and all sort of market stalls (open until late at night), are just a few of the key events of the weekend.

The center point of the folkloristic celebrations, though, is the spectacular firework display that happens on Saturday night, over the bay at 11 p.m. The sea is normally lit by floating candles that have been put in the water by children and adults in the early hours of the evening and that have drifted with the currents to light up the coast. Fantactic!

Some practical hints:
 - If you are staying somewhere else than Bonassola, take the train. Extra trains are scheduled for taking people back after the fireworks, so ask at the station for special services.
- Find a palce on the beach, better towards the left-hand side, where you can enjoy the view of the fireworks.
- Even if you are not religious, have a look at the Church. It is decorated for the occasion with lights and flowers. Some people may think it is a bit OTT, but it is certainly something you don’t see outside Italy! The church seem very plane from the outside, but it is richly decorated inside, with a few unique features, like the original marble Altar or the XVII century organ behind it or a paitning from Discovolo. There is also a major organ, but the true jewel is the little hidden one.

The weekend is buzzing with life and there is a diffuse sense of cheerfulness that is worth experiencing. The village is small, so although busy, it is still a village celebration therefore you won’t feel lost if you let the atmosphere engulf you for a few hours. If you have a chance to go, don’t forget to let us know! 

I am a fan of driving from the UK to South of France (Chamonix) or  Northern Italy (Treville where Villa Mimma is) rather than flying.

The reason why? Because if you fly and the flight is delayed, there is not much you can do with three young boys in the airport. You are trapped in the Duty Free area and if you are lucky there are a couple of display cars, otherwise you have just a few shops and not much else. Boys get bored and there is so much they can read!

In the car, they know very well that the journey is long. We do Guildford-Dover with no problem and the Channel Tunnel breaks the journey. Once in France we set off with a few things to read and to play, then lunchtime approaches. I take my time to prepare sandwiches in the car and pass them around so another hour goes between bits and pieces. Then it is time to stop.

As we have had lunch in the car already, we don’t need to sit in a restaurant or self-service bar, so the kids can run around. If it is nice weather and not too hot we normally kick a football about as well. A trip to the gents and ladies and we are off again. Normally we refill the car of diesel too. Having a diesel now is actually a bonus because we could do the journey with one refill half way between home and Chamonix (we have actually done it!).

After lunch we put a dvd on so that Glen can rest (he normally drives from home up to this point) and I can do my two or three hours shift. The children are happy and we can get on easily.

When I am tired and can’t go on driving any longer, we have a quick stop to a parking area just for a toilet break and to swap driving again - literally 10 minutes!

A few more games and books to read and colour takes us to dinner time that again is served in the car. I normally take enough stuff so that I have a few alternatives that the two meals are a bit different. Another dvd after dinner ends the car journey.

Once we approach Geneva and the Chamonix valley, they change in scenery and the excitement of almost being there makes it all much easier. In winter at this time it is quite dark and the children tend to fall asleep for the last hour or so of the journey - and so do I In summer, there is enough to see to keep them busy, once we start spotting water falls and rocks with special features on the mountains that start to appear around us.

If we have to go to Italy, it is a bit trickier because from Chamonix there are over two hours to get to Villa Mimma. We have done it by stopping in Chamonix for a good hour to rest and setting off again late in the evening so the children do sleep for this part of the journey.

In summary, if you are travelling with children:

• Have your meals in the car and don’t prepare them before leaving. Take your time and make the meal last as long as you can!
• Stop for running around either where there is a play area or a green that can be used for a quick football game.
• Do not give the children a lot to drink otherwise they ask for toilet breaks more often, hence do not eat too many crisps and salty things that make you thirsty.
• Fruit and veggies are a great snack!
• Choose movies that don’t make you fall asleep, i.e. that you know well too because while the children are watching the movie, you can simply hear the sounds and if you are driving it is terrible. If you know the movie then it is much easier to concentrate on the driving - this applies only if you have one dvd player for all!.
• Take plenty of science and animals magazines with lots of pictures and things to do. They can be passed around between the children several times and they will always find something new to look at. They work a treat, while reading books are not so great in a car.

We do not have DS yet and we always wonder if it would make the journey easier if we had. I do like it the way it is, though. We do have a couple of games, but they are boring and the boys tend to play them only for a little while at a time. They certainly spend more time with the magazines.

Things that work well are the cube and puzzles that they can make, those with pieces stuck in a square - I’ll find their names and let you know exactly what I mean ASAP. Also little cars, animals, Uno and battleship are worth having around.

If I think of anything else, I’ll add it later, but for now these are all my tips! Hope this helps!

Today I took my children (3 boys) to The O2 to see the exhibition of Tutankhamun’s tomb, which has been in London since last summer (07). Unfortunately we left the camera at home, so I can’t add pictures to this blog, but I will include all the links for a wonderful day out!

We took a train mid-morning (I never do anything in a rush!) and arrived at Waterloo just after 11am. Then we walked to the Waterloo Millennium Pier (only a few minutes away and under the London Eye) and got the High Speed Thames Clipper. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the ride on the river and the boat was quite empty so we had the choice of several positions, although the back deck was their favourite so that they could see the engines.

Once at The O2 we had a stroll around. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, and there is also a “chill at The O2″ place where people can have a relaxing rest. We got the golden tickets so that we could also go and see the movie - “The Mummies 3D”, and given that we had over an hour before our time-slot, we decided to go for a burger. It was definitely expensive, but the service was quick.

As a reward for their good behaviour, and to kill another 30 minutes before the exhibition, I let the boys have a go at the bouncy-castle-like games that were set in the main square of The O2.

Then we adventured ourselves in the museum… It was great and although quite busy we managed to see everything and I managed to give some hint of explanation to the children for every artifact displayed. There were also big photos of the Nile and of Africa, so I could remind them where Egypt is. It took us about one hour to go around at quite a relaxed pace.

Then we went to the 3D movie. My youngest one (who is 6) sat on my lap and asked to leave all the time because he found the 3D experience rather frightening, but the other two thoroughly enjoyed it.

Happy but quite tired, we waited for bus 188 that took us back to Waterloo, through London. Being the first people on the bus, we got the front seat on the upper deck, which made the journey even more fun. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the station by bus, but it was relaxing and certainly cheap (children don’t pay on buses).

In conclusion it was a really great day out. For myself and the three boys I spent about £100, including the exhibition, the movie, lunch, a book and three stoned from the shop… This didn’t include the train and transport because having an annual gold card I didn’t have to pay, so this would have put an indent in the finances of the day. Worth every penny though and hopefully the children will remember that they saw King Tut’s tomb for life!!!!